Leonardo Blair, Staff Reporter
THE NUMBER of traumatised children in Jamaican schools has pushed up the demand for guidance counsellors, putting the few in the system under severe pressure.
Children are being overwhelmed by a host of negative experiences from crime and violence to hunger, thereby presenting a huge workload, according to guidance counsellors across the island.
Primary schools that were expected to get counsellors under the Ministry of Education's recent thrust to introduce guidance counselling services across the board have not yet received any.
"The population here is a little over 1,300 but normally for a school this size you would have two counsellors but I am the only one here," said Pagrita Benjamin of the St. Aloysius Primary School in Kingston.
The counsellor explained to The Sunday Gleaner last week that as a result of the situation the school has had to be calling on the services of the police, hospitals, non-specialised teachers at the school and church groups to help deal with the growing list of issues facing students at the institution.
VIOLENT BEHAVIOUR
"We have situations from time to time where we have to get people from the Community Relations arm of the Police Force to assist us with the violent behaviour of some of the little ones who gang up on each other," explained Ms. Benjamin.
Another counsellor at the St. Andrew Technical High School, Michelle Boxhill-Dunkley, said even though she understands the Ministry of Education's constraints in equipping schools with guidance counsellors across the island, she felt it would be better for the system if policy makers focused on preventative measures in the primary schools as that would help to reduce the number of troubled teenagers coming into the secondary school system.
"At present, we have two counsellors serving 1,300 students and while in reality we would be told that we are better off than some (schools) there is no way that 1,300 students can be served by just two counsellors," she said. "I personally think that they should be focusing right now on the primary schools as these are the years when students are just developing,
"By the time many of the students reach high school they have a lot of baggage. They are dealing with a lot of adult issues and compounding problems. We have to be thankful, however, that there are two of us because I don't know what the situation would have been if it were only one."
Paulette Gooden, a guidance counsellor at the St. Hugh's High School told The Sunday Gleaner that they have two counsellors for just over 1,500 girls.
"We would do well with about two more counsellors. What we have been doing is to have trainees coming in from other institutions such as Mico and members of our past students association.
"With the older girls the two of us couldn't do it. The work of the guidance counsellor is not easy. You have students coming in from troubled areas. If there is death you have to be doing grief counselling, there are students with financial problems, they can't find the bus fare, they can't find the lunch money," said the counsellor.
At the Golden Spring Primary School in St. Andrew which has over 500 students, principal Dirnella Anderson says she has been making requests for the services of a guidance counsellor at the school from the Ministry of Education for sometime now, however, the school is yet to get one.
GUIDANCE COUNSELLOR
"I think that the students are being deprived of the services of a guidance counsellor. We need to put preventative measures in rather than curative measures. You can prevent problems at the primary level by using the persons with the specialised skills. Counsellors are a necessity in this modern age," she added.
Dr. Deloris Brissett, head of the Guidance Counselling Unit of the Ministry of Education has not been available for comment.
In a Sunday Gleaner report in December 2000, the Health and Education ministries expressed a desire to start a programme in schools to arm students with knowledge to protect themselves from the dangers of drug abuse, depression, sexually transmitted diseases, teenage pregnancies and other mishaps. However, this is yet to get off the ground.
The programme was supposed to be a combination of life skills aimed at cultivating what is internationally known as emotional intelligence. It is already being taught in a number of primary schools from Grades 1 - 7 in South Africa and Botswana with great success, according to Dr. Earle Wright, the Health Ministry's director of mental health.
"The studies that have been done show that this is the only way to go. These skills need to be taught at the earliest level. By the time the child gets to age 10 it is too late. I mean you may teach them and try to correct a situation that has already gone bad," Dr. Wright had said.
Up to April 1999, there were 516 guidance counsellors in schools across the island with 98 of that number stationed at schools in St. Andrew.
